Record Label: Memphis Industries
Genre: Indie Pop
Band Link: link
Buy on Amazon.com link

Now this is refreshing. Quirky, bizarre and utterly addictive pop music that feels simultaneously retro and futuristic. It’s pretty obvious that these guys love XTC (the band, not the drug), but quite frankly, there aren’t enough bands that use Andy Partridge as a primary influence.

What I really love about this is the fact that each song sounds different and yet stands cohesively as an album. It’s barely more than a half-hour, but it’s all Field Music really needs. They go from psychedelia to 70s AM radio pop to Brit-Rock in the span of a couple tracks, and there’s still something singular about them. They’ve crafted a sound that is completely familiar and yet it seems they’re the only group playing it these days.

I particularly love the track ‘Working to Work’, which is a fun, stop-start pop song that is too weird for radio, but will still get in your head for days. And then there’s the closing track ‘She Can Do What She Wants’, which is so far my favourite pop song of the year. It starts with this fast-paced soul drumming, and a brilliant falsetto before really getting into it with the synth strings and keys. It almost sounds so simple that if promoted right, it could be the next ‘Song 2’. And these songs just mix perfectly on the album.

In a winter that so far hasn’t produced anything that has truly blown my mind, this album is probably the closest to total awesome. As a band, Field Music might be a little bit kitschy and almost novelty at times, but for now, Tones of Town is the best pop album of 2007.

Bottom Line: Amazingly fun and quirky pop a la XTC. A well-constructed album filled with catchy tracks that need to be heard.
Notable Tracks: Working to Work, Give It Lose It Take It, She Can Do What She Wants
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